Guatemalan Chicken Buses

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When American school buses reach the age of ten years or 150,000 miles, they are sold at auction. Many of these buses are bought and driven down through Mexico to Guatemala where they are prepared for their second lives. In contrast to their modest first lives as yellow buses carting children to school, their second lives are spent stuffed with people, topped with roof racks full of cargo, and driving at high speeds over mountain passes. The old yellow paint is covered with colorful murals and praises to Jesus. This website and its companion picture book are a tribute to those second lives and to the people who share them with these “chicken buses.”

I highly recommend that you play the video in full-screen mode and pause often. Did you see how much the bus is leaning? Did you notice that the door is open and the driver's assistant is standing in the doorway? There are also some nice shots of the terrain and a local cement block business. I'm not sure that bus would pass U.S. emissions regulations though.